January Thoughts

(#284) – Perhaps some January thoughts will help us see more clearly the marvelous opportunities ahead of us as we continue in this sixth year of the Great Recession.

Still young in its progress, this winter has already provided us with such beautiful landscapes both day and night. Every human heart that is open to the healing and inspiring ministries of local natural glory draws tremendous life benefits from this elegant array.

The hope is that we will take these experiences as we turn to our daily lives to sharpen and deepen our understanding that the earth is not an infinite storehouse of resources for our use. It is a living blue ball, hurling through space, that has perfected a delegate natural economy of life over billions of years that made it possible for us to arrive and prosper. It is also a living space that is becoming toxic and destructive to life and natural balance

In little more than 200 years, the economic activity of the human species has be-gun this massive poisoning of planet earth. Emerging from our success are unintended consequences so hideous and ghastly that our failures may overpower our astonishing accomplishments. We are, in fact, engaged in an ever more rapid shortening of human history as a progressive development on planet earth.

Two powerful and everywhere available remedies are waiting for our adoption.

We must lessen our demand for energy to what is available by current or every day supply through natural systems and we must move with radical speed shift to non-carbon based fuels such as wind, solar and water power so that we are a beneficial fit into the web of earth’s creatures and the earth’s 15 mile biosphere where all life takes place. When we do this is entirely up to us. It is less expensive than our prevailing energy economy and has much fewer unintended consequences. So we shall save ourselves, our economy and our future.

It is true that every energy choice has its costs. Large wind farms do change mountain ridges and other places of great value. But they provide time for us to radically diminish our demand for energy and for the invention of new means of using the energy that is naturally available every day. We invented them, put them up and we can haul them down and convert them to other infrastructure that is more beneficial to life and earth’s requirements. These renewable energy resources and consumption reduction systems are completely within our control.

The same in not true for hydro-fracking for natural gas. From local and national political arrangements, local and national law itself, the increasing prevalence of corporate power over community benefit, to the direct destruction of air, water and soil health, hydro-fracking is a catastrophe of human making.

Becoming more energy efficient and moving rapidly towards 90% renewable energy sources is possible within a generation. The jobs are far more numerous and they are better jobs. For the sake of our health and a sustainable future, let’s spend our local dollars locally on renewables and energy efficiency.

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Sullivan Alliance for Sustainable Development (SASD) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Sullivan County, New York. Our mission is to promote a new standard for mindful development that is environmentally responsible, socially equitable and economically just; to inspire the residents of Sullivan County to embrace the principles and practices of sustainability as personal and civic values; and to make energy efficiency and renewable energy accessible for all.